Tag: AVCA

  • Kiwi Vape Group Wants Large Fines for Retail Youth Sales

    Kiwi Vape Group Wants Large Fines for Retail Youth Sales

    Credit: Mehaniq41

    A New Zealand vape industry advocate says retailers selling to underage youth are destroying the industry and must be prosecuted.

    Nancy Loucas, co-founder of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA), made the comments following the airing of a consumer television show, Fair Go, conducting a hidden camera investigation which showed three retailers selling to under 18-year-olds in Gisborne, a city in the country’s North Island, in one afternoon.

    Just six vape stores nationwide have been issued with infringement notices in the past two years, according to the AVCA.

    “I’m pleased Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall and Health New Zealand are promising more compliance checks and enforcement,” said Loucas. “No one wants kids vaping and so any rogue dairy owners need the book thrown at them and fast. No prosecutions have so far been made and that needs to change forthwith.”

    In June last year AVCA publicly called for greater enforcement. At the time it stated that “retailers have had long enough to know right from wrong. I respect the Government’s initial focus is on educating retailers about the new law, but it’s now time to move onto enforcement.”

    AVCA claims dedicated standalone specialist vape stores are not the main issue. Instead, the problems occur when convenience stores partition off a part of their shop to be a “specialist vape store” enabling them to sell a full range of flavors. AVCA stated that it’s a cynical move, which might be within the new vape laws, but needs greater attention, in an email to Vapor Voice.

    “These supposed ‘vape stores’ at one end of dairies [convenience stores] need greater oversight before they’re signed off and then greater enforcement. Overall, the regulations that came out of the 2020 vaping legislation are working well, but youth access remains a work in progress,” said Loucas.

    A recent ASH survey on youth vaping confirmed that only two percent of youth vapers illegally purchased the vapes themselves. The rest are getting it from their friends, siblings, or parents, according to Loucas.

    The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill, currently in Parliament, aims to significantly limit the number of retailers able to sell combustible tobacco by banning sales to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

    AVCA is encouraging supporters of New Zealand’s Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) approach to make a submission to Parliament’s Health Select Committee on the bill by Aug. 24.

    “MPs and officials need to keep their eyes on the prize and not let a few anti-vapers hijack this all important smokefree legislation. This is not the time to try to relitigate the country’s vaping laws which were well covered in 2020. This is all about crunching the cancer sticks which is long overdue,” said Loucas.

  • New Zealand Group Wants Vape ‘Starter Packs’ Like UK

    New Zealand Group Wants Vape ‘Starter Packs’ Like UK

    In the UK, the National Health Services (NHS) is trialing a program that will provide some smokers who are admitted to emergency departments free vaping starter kits and instruction on how to use them. This is in combination with ongoing quit-smoking support. Now, a group of vapor advocates in New Zealand wants its country’s Budget 2021 to supercharge already established smoking cessation programs by adopting the UK plan.

    “Our Government is now determined to get Smokefree 2025 back on track. Budget Day on 20 May is the first opportunity to put its money where its mouth is. Our District Health Boards and Maori health organizations have had huge success with switching smokers into vapers. It’s time for the Government to back them more,” says Nancy Loucas, co-director of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA), in a recent statement.

    Credit: Gustavo Frazeo

    Public Health England has repeatedly endorsed vaping and has never wavered from its scientific conclusion that it’s 95 percent less harmful than smoking. Recently, a new Cochrane review reinforces the effective role vaping plays in reducing smoking rates across the globe. Based in the UK, Cochrane is an independent network, involving 130 countries, health professionals, and researchers. With the strategic goal of putting Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world, it represents the gold standard for high quality, trusted health information, according to a statement.

    Titled “Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation (Review),” the Cochrane Library researchers reviewed 56 international studies, involving 12,804 adults who smoked. The study concluded that e-cigarettes could increase the number of people who stop smoking compared to other forms of nicotine replacement therapy, such as chewing gum and patches.

    It comes as a Georgetown University-led study published in the journal Population Health Metrics concludes that nicotine vaping in the US could help prevent 1.8 million premature deaths and see 38.9 million life-years gained in a span of 47 years. “Health officials in the UK believe tens of thousands of Brits stop smoking every year after switching to vaping. In fact, latest PHE estimates show that around 2.7 million adults now vape in England alone, compared to nearly seven million who smoke tobacco,” says Loucas. “What has happened over in the UK over the past decade is an impressive story. It’s one our Government needs to investigate if it is serious about rebooting New Zealand’s 2011 ambition of being smoke-free by 2025.”

    The AVCA is encouraging Kiwis to review and submit on the government’s discussion document before 5.00pm on Monday, 31 May 2021.

  • New Zealand Vape Group Says Government Supports Vaping

    New Zealand Vape Group Says Government Supports Vaping

    A New Zealand vaping advocacy group says that the government spending over $1.6 million on its Vape to QuitStrong campaign is proof New Zealand’s leaders believe vaping is the most effective smoking cessation tool. “It’s now urgent that belief is also reflected in the country’s final vaping regulations and smokefree action plan, says a leading tobacco harm reduction advocate,” the Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) states in a release. “Official information released shows the Ministry of Health has funded a budget of $1,670,000 for the Vape to QuitStrong campaign between the 2019/2020 and 2021/2022 financial years.”

    Credit: Stock Snap

    The total budget for the campaign includes strategy development, creative development, media placement, agency fees, and an allowance for operational costs. “After some delays while last year’s vaping legislation was passed, it’s great the Vape to QuitStrong campaign was launched a few weeks ago. It has made a good splash on the likes of primetime television and radio, with poster and bus shelter campaigns in communities with a high smoking prevalence,” says Nancy Loucas, co-director of AVCA.

    Available on its website, the Ministry’s business case for the current campaign puts a strong focus on young Māori women who remain disproportionately represented in New Zealand’s smoking rates. “The Ministry of Health makes it very clear that vaping products can make a real contribution to the Smokefree 2025 goal as well as disrupt significant inequities. Subsequently, the Ministry confirms that Vape to QuitStrong centres on a behavioural change campaign that will support young Māori women to successfully switch to vaping,” she says.

    As well as supporting smokers to switch to vaping and stop smoking completely, the business case says a successful campaign will be defined by ‘reducing inequalities in smoking prevalence, particularly between Māori and non-Māori… and enable health practitioners, smokers and the broader community to better understand that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking.

    However, AVCA is concerned that despite over $1.6 million of taxpayers’ money being spent on the Vape to QuitStrong’ campaign, the Government’s latest Smokefree 2025 reboot and its pending vaping regulations will both overlook the key role vaping can play in getting more Kiwis off deadly cigarettes.

    “Good on the Ministry of Health and the Health Promotion Agency on its work with Māori to deliver a campaign that they all know will be effective. These same people now just need to feed their extensive knowledge into the Government’s proposals for the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan as well as the final vaping regulations which will be signed off by Cabinet by the end of June. Otherwise, the best opportunities we have to free our at-risk communities from tobacco will be squandered,” says Loucas.

    AVCA is encouraging smokefree supporters, as well as vape consumers and businesses, to review and submit on the Government’s smokefree discussion document, released by Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall, before 31 May 2021 via: https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/proposals-smokefree-aotearoa-2025-action-plan